Description
This festive Pull-Apart Santa Cake is a delightful holiday dessert featuring vanilla cupcakes arranged and decorated to resemble Santa Claus. Perfect for Christmas parties, this cake combines easy-to-make vanilla cupcakes with colorful frosting details and creative use of Oreos and candy canes to bring Santa’s face, hat, and beard to life with an impressive pull-apart design.
Ingredients
Scale
Cupcakes
- Cooking spray, for greasing pans
- 2 (15.25-oz.) boxes vanilla cake mix, plus ingredients called for on box
Frosting & Decorations
- 4 (16-oz.) cans store-bought vanilla frosting, divided
- Red food gel coloring
- Brown food gel coloring (optional, for customizing skin tone)
- 1 Oreo cookie, divided into wafer halves
- 3 mini candy canes
- 2 piping bags, fitted with large star tips
Instructions
- Prepare Cupcake Batter and Bake: Grease four standard 12-cup muffin tins with cooking spray and line with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, prepare the cupcake batter according to the vanilla cake mix box instructions. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake cupcakes as directed on the box until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool slightly, then refrigerate completely for about 30 minutes to firm up before decorating.
- Prepare Colored Frostings: In a small bowl, mix 3 cups of vanilla frosting with 1 to 2 drops of red food gel coloring, adding more drops as needed to reach a vibrant red color for the Santa hat. In another small bowl, create a pale pink frosting by mixing 1/2 cup white frosting with 1 to 2 drops of red food coloring. For alternative skin tones, add brown food coloring until the desired shade is achieved. Transfer the red frosting into one piping bag fitted with a star tip, and the remaining white frosting into a second star-tipped piping bag.
- Arrange Cupcakes to Form Santa: On a large platter, arrange the cupcakes in the following rows: top row of 3 cupcakes, second row of 2 cupcakes, third row of 3, fourth row of 4, fifth row of 5, two rows of 6, another row of 5, then a row of 8, and finally one row of 6. Shape the bottom three rows into a half-moon for Santa’s beard, and angle the top row of three cupcakes to one side to mimic the hat flopping over.
- Apply Face and Beard Frosting: Using an offset spatula, spread the pink or brown-tinted frosting on the center cupcakes in the fifth, sixth, and seventh rows to create Santa’s face. Use the white frosting to pipe rose swirls on the cupcakes beneath the face and on either side, forming the beard. Fill in any gaps between roses with smaller swirls of frosting to complete the beard’s fullness. Pipe the brim of the hat as a long squiggly line of white frosting across the top and add a swirl of white frosting at the hat’s tip.
- Add Facial Features with Frosting and Oreos: Take the Oreo cookie and separate the wafers. Dollop frosting onto two Oreo wafer halves and place them on the face cupcakes as Santa’s eyes. Pipe white frosting above the eyes to create eyebrows and craft a mustache below the nose area. Place a small dollop of red frosting above the mustache to simulate Santa’s nose.
- Finish the Hat Decoration: Clean the star tip and fill the piping bag with red frosting. Pipe red frosting rose swirls on the remaining unfrosted cupcakes that form the hat to complete its vibrant red look.
- Create Santa’s Glasses with Candy Canes and Oreos: Break the curved parts off two mini candy canes. Insert one straight candy cane piece between the Oreo wafer halves on the face, forming the bridge of Santa’s glasses, and position the curved pieces sticking out from each Oreo to create the glasses’ sides.
Notes
- Make sure cupcakes are completely cooled and chilled before decorating to prevent frosting from melting.
- Adjust the red and brown coloring gradually to achieve the perfect shades for the hat and Santa’s face.
- You can use store-bought or homemade vanilla frosting according to preference.
- The cupcake arrangement is key to forming the Santa shape clearly; follow the row arrangement closely.
- The candy cane glasses add a whimsical touch but can be omitted if desired.
- Use an offset spatula or small knife for smoother spreading of the face frosting.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Santa cake, pull-apart cake, Christmas dessert, cupcakes, holiday cake, festive cake, holiday cupcakes
